this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026
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Selfhosted

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[–] bdama@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It would be great if people could stop using Meta services and software.

[–] Fedditor385@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It would be great if people stop using social media in general.

[–] irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 3 days ago (3 children)
[–] Fedditor385@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

You are right. According to the definition of social media, Lemmy is social media. However, "social media" would by definition fit any kind of digital communication media. A forum, or a blog, or an IRC channel are also, by definition, social media.

I would argue that the social media has a distinct association with Facebook, Instagram and the diverse spawns of those, and by association doesn't fit anything else. At best, we simply lack a different term, which splits "old-school" stuff like forums and blogs. I view lemmy more like a forum. You have categories, and users can go into categories to start discussions. You don't follow anyone. People also don't create and post their own content, but rather seek discussions or share other stuff from the internet. Your goal is not reach, follow count or like count.

It is social media, but it's definitely nothing like Facebook. We simply lack a better term.

[–] irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I would definitely call a forum or IRC channel social media.

I wouldn't consider blogs social media unless they had a very active comments section.

[–] Fedditor385@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Media is more audio, video, image. Which fits social media.

Most forums and blogs are text-based or primary text. There is no blog sharing only images/videos/audio as posts. Also no such forum.

That would be my key differentiation - forums and IRC is social, but not really media.

[–] ptu@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

Printed media is definately media, and so are blogs. The social part of it is how people can interact with it.

[–] NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 0 points 2 days ago (2 children)

What is the social part? I change my name daily, and dont really give a shit about people following me.

[–] irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Its social because you're interacting with other people

[–] NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

No. I am reading an aggregation forum, and getting clarity and insights from the comments. I barely am interacting with anyone.

Look, this term didn't even exist until the mid 90's and didn't take off in common use until the mid 2000's.

The difference is Lemmy is topic centered thread first, discussion last, where social media is basically a self publishing, identity first platform. People put shit on instagram and facebook because it is about them (mostly). Here it is just news/stories with comments. And anonymity, which is what makes it all work.

I consider everyone here the same way I did when I was on a bbs: they are liars. Modern twist: they are liars and bots. Everyone is bullshitting and saying whatever they want, this is hardly a social event.

[–] irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

So is twitter not social media if you just use it to read hashtags, and get clarity and insight from the comments?

Other social media sites can very much be topic centered